ALAN MILLAR tells the story of the £500,000 restoration of a historically significant prewar Birmingham double-decker
Many transport museums have promising, but dauntingly expensive potential restoration projects in their collections, some hidden from view, others displayed to inspire visitors to help bring them back to life. They are the stuff of optimistic dreams.
Birmingham 486 (OV 4486) was one of them. A 1931 AEC Regent that survived — not intact but unquestionably recognisable — into the dawn of private bus preservation, and which for over 30 years sat in corners of the Wythall Transport Museum awaiting attention that could eliminate the ravages of neglect and deterioration.
It was not the museum’s only candidate for reconstruction — an engineless 1933 Midland Red REDD double-decker remains untouched — but the Regent has just returned from a five-year restoration that makes it not just as good as new, but arguably better than new.
It looks and sounds magnificent, performs impressively, and is a tribute to the huge investment that has gone into its transformation from wreck to gleaming masterpiece. The work cost around £500,000, made possible by personal legacies, grant aid, specific fundraising p…
